ONLINE JOURNALISM

Q. How has the Internet affected print journalism?
The Internet is a time-saving research resource for journalists and editors, especially for reporters looking for background, if they care to dig and look. You also see a lot of articles, columns, syndicated features now about the Internet in print and broadcast publications.
Q. What influences do online journalists have on their audiences, in comparison to mass media journalists?
While audiences for online journalism remain smaller than the audiences for mass media journalism, online journalists have the same influence on their audiences that mass media journalists have -- by choosing which stories to report; by choosing which facts, quotes, and other story elements to include and which to exclude; by choosing to tell the story from a particular point of view. A crime story told from the point of view of the victim will elicit a different reaction from the same story told from the point of view of the criminal, for example, whether that story is presented in the morning newspaper, on the 6 o'clock TV news, or on the Web. The Web's interactivity and hyperlinking gives the journalist more opportunities to examine multiple points of view in a particular piece than traditional, analog media. The lack of serious space limitations permits online journalists to develop a story more fully and to publish source documents and background material.
Q. How much choice do audiences of online publications have about what news and information they receive? Is it really that different to the information we are fed by the mass media?
Many web sites give their customers the option to receive news and information selected according to individual preferences. But the news and information the customer receives may not be any different from what is already available; I can get a custom view of the news that fits my interests at usatoday.com, perhaps, but it's still the same news everybody else can find at usatoday.com. The big web news sites often draw news reports from wire service reports (Reuters, Associated Press, etc.); newspaper sites use editorial material from the newspaper; TV and radio web sites use news reports from their broadcasts.
Many more points of view are represented on the Web than in traditional mass media, and it is more cost-effective to target special-interest publications. It's quite easy to get to journalistic reports from other countries, from groups not well represented in the mass media (ethnic groups, gays and lesbians, a broad range of sub-culture groups, for example), and it's easy to get news directly from newsmaking organizations (space news from NASA's web site, for example, instead of that same news as reported in the daily newspaper).
One of the great things about the Web is how easy it is for individuals and small groups to publish. I expect that personal journalism will continue to blossom and flourish on the Web, as people use it to tell their stories about what they do in their families, communities, work places, churches, schools, etc.
Q. Will this pressure to turn a profit result in questionable advertising and marketing efforts and a lack of focus on quality journalism?
I don't think the "pressure to turn a profit" will "result in questionable advertising and marketing efforts and a lack of focus on quality journalism", no more than it does in traditional print and broadcast journalism. Web publications that want to publish quality journalism are already doing it, apart from any advertising or marketing or profit questions.
Q. Even the most respectable news site has the potential to send the unwary surfer to a linked site of less reliable editorial standards and sources. Do you think this situation presents a threat to a well respected site's credibility?
Some of the bigger news sites are careful to say clearly that the links go to sites with which they have no relationship and over which they exercise no editorial control. A better practice would be for the writers and editors of the article to cite material from a linked site and put it in context, to say whether or not the material in the linked site is credible or not and why, providing some editorial filter for the sites they link to. Linking to unreliable or incredible sites could be truly confusing, and could have a negative impact on a news site's credibility, if the linked sites are viewed in a frame within the original site and it's not clear which site has editorial control over the material being viewed in the frame.
Q. Will online journalism lead to the demise of some traditional publications?
Perhaps. Some web publications will do a better job of creating profitable relationships with customers than print publications, especially those that do a good job of identifying audiences who are on the Web. Print publications may lose customers to Web publications if they don't find ways to deliver news and information and services to those Web-savvy customers in print as well as on the Web.
Q. How reliable is online information?
It's a mixed bag, and should be treated the same way that professional journalists treat any other information that they find in the course of reporting a story. Good, reliable editing and filtering of information becomes ever more important on the Web, where anybody can publish anything and make it look substantial. Editorial "branding" becomes crucial.

(POSTED BY NIDA KHAN)